Cumbrae – Prestwick
Carrick’s annual Exciseman’s Chase took place in the beautiful Maidenhead Bay on the 9th of September. It was a beautiful sunny day although with strong winds and heavy seas and hoards of wild, white maned horses racing relentlessly towards the shore.
majestic swan
But it was a great day for us 4 Arran Coastal Rowers (Dave, Emma, Stuart, Fritzi) and we thoroughly enjoyed the good company of our friends from Cumbrae (Angus, Niki, Fergus, Dana, Patrick and John) who invited us to row their skiff „Cumbrae“ with them, creating a new team for the day – “CumbrArran”. We think we harmonized very well and made a great team.
Carrick Coastal Rowing Club proved to be great hosts and offered wonderful hospitality, with delicious catering throughout the day. It was great to meet so many clubs and familiar faces and as the sun shone everybody enjoyed being outside having tons of interclub chitchat.
9 skiffs from Carrick, Cumbrae, Firth of Clyde, Girvan, Killyleagh, Prestwick, Royal West, Sketrick and Troon took part. To test the waters and to make sure that the conditions were safe enough, the racing day started with two short sprints outside the harbour. After this, Carrick made the decision to amend the original 8km Exciseman’s Chase to a shorter race in the bay.
results
The amended Exciseman’s Chase followed the rules of the original one and began with a runner setting off from the starter’s tent with a token; the token onboard, the skiffs set off at 2 min intervals for their approx. 2km course to a sandy beach where a second crew was waiting. The token had to exchanged on shore for a bottle of whisky, the second crew then jumped in and did the course in reverse, pressing under all power of oar and arm back to Maidens, where the whisky had to be delivered after a sprint up the shore back to the starter’s tent.
We from Arran would like to thank everybody for a tremendous day, especially to Cumbrae for inviting us and the lifts from and to Ardrossan harbour.
Photos
And last but not least a link to Dave’s great photos of the day: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pu0gOOvMaZYUr4Jp1
Please click on the photos to enlarge them.
